None
EN
Legally Available Options in Response to Russia’s Penetrations of NATO Airspace
['Michael Schmitt', 'Daniel Maurer', 'Just Security', 'Danae Askar', 'Rebecca Hamilton', 'Annie Shiel', 'John Ramming Chappell', 'Sue Biniaz', 'Eugene R. Fidell', 'Bettina Rottweiler']
Just Security
And both U.S. President Donald Trump and Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk have asserted that Russian military aircraft entering NATO airspace should be shot down.
However, even if one or more of the intrusions was unintended, a non-consensual penetration of another State’s airspace violates that State’s territorial sovereignty (Tallinn Manual 2.0, p. 24).
Given the record, there is essentially no doubt that the non-consensual intrusions by Russian military aircraft into NATO member States’ airspace violated their territorial sovereignty.
The same case-by-case, multi-factored approach applies by analogy to intrusions by military aircraft that do not cause immediate physical harm.
As an effects-based assessment, the central issue is the extent to which an intrusion by another State’s military aircraft undermines the territorial State’s security.